Legal crises can test you. Learn from the best gamers. Find a comfortable sofa, get your drinks and snacks all lined up, and make sure you’re well slept. Strap on your game headset, talk calmly and intelligently with your lawyer soldier, agree on your strategy, help acquire the best position, keep your ammo supply high, line up your sights, and pull the trigger only when your target is locked-on. That’s how you’ll rack up the points and get your name up on the winner’s board! Good gaming!
The Justice System – from cops to courts to jails – is just not working. So why continue on with it? Are we dupe enough to believe that we can actually improve upon a system that already swallows hundreds of billions of dollars every year, that employs millions of people many of whom with stellar educations and noble intentions?
Read MoreLook at the brutality that we have created, look at the injustice. It is time that we rethink this structure. We are adults, we have minds, and we must use them to create a better world. The police state simply creates a more antagonistic Society, judges render no real justice, and prisons do not rehabilitate but simply exacerbate.
Read MoreJudge Jed Rakoff, a federal judge at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, wrote a fantastic article in November 2014 for The New York Review of Books entitled “Why Innocent People Plead Guilty“. Shortly after, he provided an interview about the topic to AlterNet, an online magazine. In it, he discussed how federal criminal defendants accept plea bargains 97% of the time and on average state criminal defendants accept them 94% of the time.
Read MoreSchool bullying can result in criminal charges for assault, battery, and harassment, as well as civil damages for the torts of negligent supervision, training, retention, and hiring of school faculty and staff, civil harassment, defamation of character, civil assault, civil battery, conversion of personal property, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Parents can bring civil lawsuits on behalf of their children if they are the target of bullies, and they can contact the police to investigate criminal charges against juvenile bullies.
Read MoreDuring his campaign, Mr. Obama promised us to create a meaningful universal health care law that would provide all Americans with necessary health care coverage. I suppose by that he meant that he would institute the Republican, pro-insurance industry requirement that we all get in line to spend what little money we have to purchase private insurance policies from big insurance companies, lest we be held liable for violating the ironically named "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Law" - an Orwellian name for a law that is itself unconstitutional.
Read MoreMany business professionals often lack a sufficient understanding of the fundamentals of US Patent Law. To bridge the gap and make my professional conversations with clients more useful and time-effective, I offer the following synopsis of US Patent Litigation and Patent Law. Please note that this synopsis is only for basic informational and entertainment purposes and should not be relied upon as legal advice. You should consult with me personally to discuss your Patent Litigation matter.
Read MoreThe California laws regarding Sex Crimes, especially those that are registerable sex offences under Megan’s Law, can stir powerful debates in this state for various reasons. Some consider them to be outdated and out-of-touch with the realities of sexual activity in contemporary society, where it is arguably commonplace for teenage minors to engage in sex with each other in their parents’ homes, where it may be routine practice to have sex when you’re drunk with your girlfriend or boyfriend or even somebody you just met in a bar, where it is not unusual to see public nudity on California’s college campuses on the first rain of the season or on California’s public beaches or big city parks, or where various shocking fetishes and sado-masochistic practices may be more popular in certain social circles especially in edgy metropolitan areas such as San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Read MoreStudents from all nations are guilty of cheating in school for one reason or another. Certainly there is no shortage of cheating by white students in US schools, and the same can be said of students of all ethnic backgrounds in any nation. According to the International Center for Academic Integrity, of 71,300 US undergraduate college students surveyed over the last dozen years 68% of them admitted to some form of cheating at school, while 43% of 17,000 graduate students surveyed admitted to the same. Of 70,000 US high school students surveyed at over 24 different high schools, 95% admitted to some form of cheating.
Read MoreIt’s important to mediate on what we accomplish in our life’s work, what kind of company we work for, what its impact on the world really is, and also to think about how we spend our money, what companies and habits we support, and our impact on our communities and the planet. It’s important to think about how we treat people with whom we interact each day in small ways and large as we walk the streets, drive our cars, shop, talk on the phone, and so on.
Read MoreOut of all the respondents, a quarter of the women admitted to perpetrating the domestic violence and, when the violence was reciprocal, women were often the ones to have been the first to strike. In addition, an analytic view of 552 domestic violence studies published in the Psychological Bulletin found that 38% of the physical injuries suffered in domestic violence disputes were suffered by men.
Read MoreIt is best to review your business’s policies and procedures in maintaining the highest available levels of security for your databases and online accounts, be as organized and diligent as possible in your data management and online security practices, and take all the necessary precautions by training your personnel appropriately. Since nobody is impervious to online attacks, as we learn from Mr. Honan’s unfortunate example, it is important to also clearly inform your clients of such possibilities in your contractual language.
Read MoreFrom my experiences as a bicoastal business attorney practicing in CA, NY, WA, DC, and MA, our nation’s most progressive business startup states, I know that many startup founders are brilliant intellectuals who have created winning positions in their field by way of their professional creativity and personal drive. Yet simultaneously these individuals often lack any real legal knowledge and high-quality legal representation to help them avoid Intellectual Property litigation and understand the power and nuances of Trade Secrets Law. To that end, I have prepared this brief outline of California Trade Secrets to help startup professionals understand the legal and rational underpinnings of this area of the law, helping them to better communicate with me during legal representation.
Read MoreBetween 1948 and 1967, Israel declared Jerusalem its capital, it continued its attacks on Palestinians living in UN refugee camps in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and it repeatedly defied UN resolutions reprimanding Israel for its violence. Feeling unprotected by the international community, frustrated Palestinians began to mobilize into armed groups, such as Fateh and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and used similar tactics as the Zionist gangs in prior decades. Violence between Israel and Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip escalated to the point of war.
Read MoreI truly believe that the single best piece of advice that any lawyer can give is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is well worth your time and money to consult with an attorney and to hire an attorney to prepare the legal foundations of your business, including crucial contracts and other legal brochures and papers that you can use to try as best as you can to protect yourself in your dealings with various individuals and companies. That way, if you are sued or otherwise involved in any sort of legal problem, you may find yourself in a safer and stronger position that you may have otherwise been.
Read MoreA contract is a contract. When you promise to pay a man for work he performs for you, you have to keep your word. Regardless of whether you can slip through the cracks into anonymity, foist some false-hearted or meager defense, or point to his relative wealth in comparison to your own financial austerity, we must all keep our promises to the very best of our abilities.
Read MoreAs soon as our reeling minds start to focus on why this tragedy happened and how we could try to prevent it from happening again, the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut today, along with similar school shootings throughout the country over the last decade including the famous 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Columbine, Colorado, raises questions for us about gun control laws in the face of the US Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
Read MoreFree Speech lawsuits generally conjure sensational images of controversial civil protests by angry grassroots political activists burning flags or crosses in broad view of the public. In recent months, a couple of interesting cases have been raised to the fore behind the regulated walls of public school rooms involving young girls causing a stir in Free Speech law.
Read MoreI know that I can't help everybody who calls my me, and that at the end of the month, I too have to pay the rent, feed the dogs, and buy food at the market. Yet when I help couples find a peaceful path through divorce and custody disputes, businesses avoid costly litigation, a defendant in criminal court achieve a better alternative than jail or justly avoid a guilty verdict altogether, or a student stand up for her rights against an abusive school administrator or teacher, I not only accept the kind words, hugs, and high fives of people who are truly glad they met me, but I also feel a sacred sense of inner peace and a sense of having helped my community to be a better place to live.
Read MoreAccording to the EEOC, while the number of sexual harassment lawsuits as a whole has declined over the last decade, the number of sexual harassment lawsuits filed by male victims has increased in that time period. In fact, between 1992 and 2008, the number of sexual harassment lawsuits filed by men doubled from 8% to 16%. David Grinberg, an EEOC spokesman stated, "While some people may think sexual harassment of male employees is a joke, the issue is real [...] We are seeing more of it, and such conduct has serious legal consequences for employers." It is quite possible that the number of male victims of sexual harassment are far greater than the EEOC data represents, since there may likely be psychological factors such as peer pressure and gender identity issues that prevent male victims from coming forward to report being victims of sexual harassment and unwanted advances at work.
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